A Kenyan man on Wednesday afternoon crashed his vehicle into a police cruiser in Massachusetts, leaving a state policeman dead, Kenya’s Daily Nation reports.
Thirty-year-old David Njuguna of Webster, MA, was speeding on the Massachusetts Turnpike before he veered across three marked lanes and crashed into the state trooper’s vehicle.
Thomas L. Clardy, 44, a US Marine Corps veteran and a married father of six children, had returned to his parked cruiser after pulling over a driver for a traffic violation when it was struck by a Nissan Maxima that had swerved across all three travel lanes, authorities said.
According to police, the impact sent the trooper’s vehicle crashing into a nearby embankment.
The wayward car smashed into the back of Clardy’s Ford Explorer without slowing, delivering a “tremendous impact,” Colonel Richard McKeon, superintendent of the State Police, said at a somber news conference.
When first responders arrived at the scene, they found Trooper Clardy with traumatic injuries and administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) before transporting him to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Mr Njuguna was airlifted by a helicopter to UMass Medical Center with serious injuries.
According to the police, Mr Njuguna is being charged with negligent operation of a motor vehicle and failure to stay in his lane.
Police are also seeking an immediate suspension of his licence with the Registry of Motor Vehicles. More charges may be added.
Njuguna’s license was suspended for 180 days in October 2013 when he refused to take a breathalyzer after being stopped by police in Oxford, according to Registry of Motor Vehicles records. His license was reinstated in June 2014 after he paid a reinstatement fee, and it was valid at the time of Wednesday’s crash, according to the records.
A native of Kenya, Njuguna came to the United States around 2009 and works as a medical technician, the relative said.
On his Facebook page, Njuguna wrote that he studied accounts and finance in Kenya and moved to the Worcester area last fall.
